Beary Smiles
by Scoops838
Summary: Tag to 6:14 Love and War - Tim was just a bit to smug about his online girlfriend and just a bit too hurtful in some of his jibes about Tony and Jeanne. When the case uncovers the use of Beary Smiles (1989's must have Christmas Gift) and McGee is foolish enough to mention he always wanted one, Tony comes up with a plan to get him back. Ref to spanking and father/son punishment.
1. Chapter 1

So the morning had not started out well with the computers playing up and no one in the IT department seeming to want to fix things. It was not made any better by an overly happy Tim McGee wandering into the office and smugly fixing the problem on Tony's computer in a couple of key-strokes whilst bragging about his online hook up with a level five sorceress; the one that Tony had invented as a fake profile to mess with McGee in a moment of boredom and now couldn't bring himself to admit to the younger agent that he had set him up.

It got worse when DiNozzo tried to order McGee down to help Gibbs at the crime scene. Tim, claiming he wanted to stay in a good headspace after his stunning online weekend, refused to go down to the cabin to assist Gibbs with the disemboweled naval captain whose remains had been found in there. Tony had not reacted too badly to the refusal of his order but instead sought to torment McGee into going down there by calling him "Chicken."

When this hadn't worked, Tony sought to give him some advice about his new found love, in the hope that he could lessen any blow when it came to breaking up the budding romance or at the very least take the shine off of it..

McGee however, didn't take the bait and rather than go down to the cabin chose instead to hit back at Tony with jibes about not dating doctors whose fathers were the worlds biggest arms dealers. Then accused him of being jealous of him. Tony chose not to react but had clearly been hurt by the cutting words.

….and then there was Beary Smiles. The must have Christmas gift of 1989. Every kid including the 12 year old McGee had wanted one, and when he hadn't got one he had invented his own using his Winnie the Pooh bear and an old tape recorder. Pooh 2.0 was invented.

McGee had spent a good hour messing around with the bears technology and currently had him hooked up to his keyboard so that he could make him say whatever he wanted. For the last 30 minutes whilst the rest of the team were trying to work and more importantly whilst Gibbs was out of the room, Tim, through the medium of Beary Smiles, had continued to insult and wind up Tony. Just as Tony was about to get up and rip the bears head off of its electronic body, Gibbs had re-entered the bullpen and had put a stop to it himself. Gibbs had also promised McGee that the two of them were going to have a chat about the messing about at the end of the case. He'd also caught wind of McGees refusal to follow Tony's orders at the scene and the nasty insults about his relationship with Jeanne Benoit. He was not about to just let that one go, but it would have to wait.

Tony had not realized that Gibbs was going to deal with it though, and when the next morning Tim was showing none of the telltale signs of having had a little discussion with their Boss he decided he would have to get his own back on his smug co-worker.

Tony had arrived into work early the next morning, partially to keep up on the paperwork that went along with his role, partially to follow up a couple of overnight leads on the case and generally because it gave him a chance to snoop through McGee's stuff to find a way to get him back.

As he sifted through the contents of the cardboard box recently stowed under the table he found bits of the electronic bear and recorder that McGee had been messing with. An idea started to form. If a 12 year old McGee could make a talking bear out of an old Winnie the Pooh and a tape recorder, then he, a grown male with a little computing know-how (not quite on McGees level but not bad) along with Larry from the electronic resources department, who owed him a favour after Tony had taken his little nephew to the screening of the latest Zombie movie, when neither he nor the kids parents could summon up the nerve to go, could make a few of them with a couple of added tweaks.

As he did a final sweep of the desk and area around McGees desk, just in case he had missed some other juicy bit of information, he heard the ping of the elevator, and dashed back to his desk, tripping on McGees chair as he did.

Looking up from his stumble his eyes rose to meet those of his boss.

"What ya doing DiNozzo?" enquired Gibbs.

"Oh hi Boss didn't see you there," Tony replied as nonchalantly as he could whilst smoothing out his shirt and paying extra attention to his tie, to try to avoid further eye contact.

"Clearly, but what were you doing by McGee's desk? Gibbs asked again.

"Oh nothing I was just…." Started Tony.

"Snooping around trying to find more info to put into the fake profile I know you created to torment him?" suggested Gibbs.

"Ah, you know about that, I'm trying to end it," explained Tony slightly nervous and a little curious how Gibbs even knew about online profiles and stuff like that.

"Make sure you do," commanded Gibbs, "Or I will and you won't like it, understand?

"Yes Boss, ending it now," came the hasty response, keen to avoid any Gibbs like intervention.

The rest of the day had passed without too many problems; Tony tried to be on his best behaviour. He didn't want anything to hamper his plan to get back at McGee for all of the jibes and cruel remarks.

By the end of the case, Tony had managed to avoid any further run-ins with Gibbs or warnings from him, he'd almost forgotten about his little plan until Larry texted him to say he had got hold of some gadgets and gizmos that the department were getting rid of and offered to come over to Tony's to help him put them together, payment to be in pizza!

Later that evening over slices of pizza and a few beers the two assembled several implements of McGee based torture. Tony had gathered together old stuffed animals, clowns, jack-in the boxes and robots from various charity shops around the neighbourhood. Into each of them they installed mini recorders, lights, and a wireless device to allow them to be activated remotely. The only problem, they would need to be plugged into the mains outlets. Tony routed around and found a box of old extension cables in the back of his closet.

Dressed in black, armed with a bag full of animated toys, a roll of duct tape, the extension cables and the remote control hand set, Tony waved good-bye to Larry who had dropped him over to McGee's apartment. Now all he had to do was lie in wait for McGee to leave the apartment for his regular Friday night appointment at the World of Warcraft society. Like clockwork, Tim left the apartment at 2030 hours and made his way over to his vehicle. A few short moments later Tony sneaked into his apartment.

Two hours later Tony had popped the robotic toys into cupboards, shelves, under the bed, wherever he could find that they would not be immediately noticed. He carefully laid out the extension cords, taping them into place and finally plugged in the toys. Checking the signal on the wireless device and on the remote control handset, he carefully retreated from the premises and hid himself in the electric cupboard in the corridor outside McGee's front door and then he waited for his return.


	2. Chapter 2

After what seemed like an age, Tony heard the sounds of his Probie's footfalls approaching the front door. As he peeked out of a crack in the electric cupboard door he saw McGee fumble for his keys and drop them. Probie had been drinking. The keys scattered across the floor to just outside of the electric cupboard. Tony held his breath as McGee neared his location and bent to pick up the set. He had no need to worry, Tim was oblivious to his surroundings, scooped up the keys, took his time to straighten up and steady himself and then finally made his way in through the front door.

As Tim crossed the floor to the bedroom he did not notice the array of toys and bears surrounding him. Instead he grabbed a couple of aspirin, downed a glass of water, stripped down to his boxers and collapsed onto the bed and started to softly snore.

Monitoring Tim from a camera built into the eyes of the toy robot currently situated in the corner of the bedroom in amongst the shoe rack, Tony watched as Tom gently slumbered. Now was the time.

First the bear under the bed started to speak, "Timothy, oh Timothy," over and over until he started to stir.

"Wake up McGee, Wake up McGee," called out the stuffed panda from the shelf over the bed.

It was when the clown hidden in the closet started to cackle maniacally that McGee finally woke up. Shocked and slightly dazed he first of all put it down to too much alcohol and too little sleep. Just as he was about to close his eyes again the jack in the box located under the desk in the writing area sprang into life, leaping repeatedly out of its box, the red lights in its eyes giving it the appearance of a small devil and the wailing that screeched from within it proving to be every bit as realistic as if it had just been assaulted by Beelzebub himself.

McGee was suddenly on full alert. He reached for the baseball bat he kept in the closet just as the clown from within there started up again, shaking its head from side to side and laughing with a blood curdling tone.

McGee jumped up onto the bed hitting his head upon the lamp shade as he did so, this set the Panda on the shelf off with calls of, "We're going to get you McGee."

Out in the cupboard Tony was in stitches watching the frantic movements of the toys and the only human occupant of the flat. Oh if only he had thought to record all of this too. It would have been an instant hit on Youtube.

Getting carried away with his revenge DiNozzo started to set all of the toys off throughout the apartment. Lights flashed from under the bed, red and green eyes flashed out of darkened corners and crevices, robots lurched forward towards their prey, jack in the boxes uttered threats and bears and clowns let out screams and curses that would have put any 'B' list horror movie to shame.

DiNozzo had tears streaming down his face, he got so carried away that he forgot to monitor the toys and their newly implanted systems. The first to go wrong was the screeching bear nestled amongst the jazz record collection. His alternating flashing eyes started to overheat and popped right out of his head, smashing against the window to the writing room. The Jack in the box positioned under the desk was next to blow, jumping right out of his box and flying towards the bedroom door.

This proved to be McGees undoing and suddenly in protection mode he swung out with the bat hitting out at all of the demons he thought had taken up residence in his apartment. Stuffing went flying, eye balls rolled around the floor having been knocked clean out by strike after strike. Tim made his way around the apartment, striking out at each and every tormentor as if his life depended upon it.

From the cupboard Tony tried to ramp things up further still. However this combined with Tims frantic defensive moves inside the flat finally reached crisis point. As Tim brought the bat down for the twentieth time on the robot that was (on its cable) heading to the bathroom where McGee was now trying to take refuge behind his duck print shower curtain, there was a sudden power surge which caused each and every toy in the flat to go into overdrive and then explode loudly taking all of the power with them.

Quiet descended on the apartment. McGee had sunk down and into the bath, and there he remained.

Tony having seen the toys were getting out of control had tried to switch them off but to no avail. When he heard the loud explosions from inside he had frozen in terror. What had he done? He burst out of the electric cupboard just as McGee's neighbours were arriving with torches to find out what had caused all of their power to blow and what the noise was that came from Tim's apartment.

Borrowing a torch from a neighbor Tony convinced them all to wait outside of the apartment whilst he, a federal agent, went in to investigate. Dissuading them from calling the cops was a little more difficult.

The neighbours gathered around the door as DiNozzo pushed it carefully open. The sight that met them in the eerie glow of the torchlights was something of a cross between the teddy bears picnic and the Texas chain saw massacre.

DiNozzo made his way through to the bedroom at which point he heard the heavy and frantic breathing of McGee who was desperately trying to take control of his lungs in the bathroom.

"Tim, its Tony are you alright?" he called out in the hope McGee was ok.

"I…I….hel….help me," came the stuttered and shaky response.

Crossing the floor into the bathroom, Tony made his way over to McGee. Tim sat there shaking with fear and cold, wearing only his boxers and draped in the duck print shower curtain which had fallen upon him as he had clambered into the bathtub as a last means of survival.

From the hallway the neighbours called out, "is he alright, do you need us to call anyone for you?"

Realising the trouble that he would really be in if the police and ambulance got called out to this, Tony quickly responded, "No we are fine, just go back to your apartments and we will have the electric company out as soon as possible." After reassuring them a few more times that there really was no need to call anyone else, Tony turned his attention back to McGee.

McGee was pale and looked in danger of passing out or puking at any given moment. Tony needed to get him some help but knew that in so doing he was going to get himself into more trouble than he had ever imagined.

Biting the bullet, he pulled his cellphone from his pocket, then after laying a blanket around McGee, he pressed one on the speed dial.

"Hi Gibbs, I kinda need some help, its urgent."


	3. Chapter 3

Gibbs stood amongst the shattered remains of stuffed animals and electronic parts taking in the scene of utter devastation. Tony stood quietly in the kitchen area, head down; worried about McGee and about the trouble he knew he was in. McGee was in the bedroom with Ducky checking him over carefully for injury and further signs of shock.

Ducky emerged from the bedroom leaving McGee to get dressed and moved over to the side of his old friend who still had not uttered a single word since letting him into the apartment.

"He'll be fine Jethro, a little shocked, still slightly under the influence of alcohol but despite his torment no injuries and the shock will wear off," Ducky announced, "mind you, I wouldn't advise him staying here tonight alone."

"Thanks Duck, he will be coming with me, I'll keep an eye on him," commented Gibbs.

"Just let him sleep and talk to him in the morning about it," advised Ducky, "he is perhaps a little more embarrassed than he is in shock," he continued, looking disapprovingly over to where Tony was still stood.

Gibbs looked his way too. Tony went to speak but got no further than opening his mouth before Gibbs shot a glare in his direction alongside the order, "go wait in the car DiNozzo."

Tony tried again to utter his apologies but the glare became even more intense than Tony thought was possible and after Gibbs added, "save the apologies for later," he turned and left the apartment, shoulders slumped and utterly defeated.

Ducky feeling a smidgeon of sympathy for the sorry situation the younger man had gotten himself into merely turned to his old friend and advised, "hear him out and don't kill him Jethro, I don't think he intended any of this."

Gibbs didn't respond verbally but nodded towards the ME patted him on the shoulder and then went into the bedroom to assist his youngest agent to pack a bag of clothes and personal stuff to take to his house whilst they cleaned and fixed up his place.

Fifteen minutes later he and McGee made their way down to Gibbs' car. Tony sat quiet and forlorn in the back seat. Taking a deep breath Gibbs dropped McGee's bag into the trunk and steered his youngest to the front seat and into the car.

As they arrived at his home he motioned Tony towards the sofa with just one word, "sit!" Tony slumped down onto the sofa, tired, still worried about McGee and with no knowledge of how he was going to get out of this one alive. He continued to worry over this whilst Gibbs escorted McGee upstairs to the boys bedroom and helped him settle in there.

Closing the door to behind him, Gibbs' mind turned again to his oldest. How was he ever going to get through to him. Slowly he made his way back down the stairs and from the hallway watched as DiNozzo picked at the edges of the cushion he was holding onto as if his very life depended upon it. He sighed heavily. He was not in the right frame of mind to deal with this now; if he did he would have to call on the services of Ducky again but this time in his capacity as a medical examiner. If he dealt with this now DiNozzo would not survive let alone ever sit down again in his lifetime.

He walked into the living room, shutting out the thoughts about punishing the kid for now. Tony looked up in anticipation at the onslaught he thought he was about to get.

When it did not come Tony got worried, "Is he ok Boss?" he enquired after McGee.

"You care about that do ya?" Gibbs asked.

Tony choked back the sob that was in danger of breaking free from him, "I'm sorry Boss," he muttered and then, "please is he alright?"

"Yeah, no thanks to your little stunt though," came back the angry response.

Tony tried again to apologise but Gibbs just turned and walked towards the kitchen, ignoring the repeated apologies. He needed coffee. Sure it was the early hours of the morning but he was unlikely to sleep anyhow. He left Tony standing staring at his retreating back.

The first cup of coffee calmed his temper, he poured the second and carried it back into the living room, ready now to at least instruct Tony to use the spare room, get some sleep and tell him they would all talk this through in the morning. As he stepped into the room the first thing he noticed was a scrap of paper on the coffee table alongside DiNozzo's work phone and ID. The note simply said 'Sorry'. DiNozzo was gone.

Worry etched across his face, Gibbs rang Ducky. "I need another favour Duck," he started, "can you come and sit with McGee, I need to find Tony."

Gibbs spent the next two hours driving the routes that Tony might have taken. He wasn't at home, he hadn't called Ziva or Abby. No taxi had been ordered. He had simply vanished into the dark hours of the night.

Gibbs blamed himself, if he hadn't have needed that damn coffee, if he had been able to communicate to the kid that he just needed to calm down and they would fix things. If he had dealt with Tim's cutting and insensitive remarks earlier in the week then maybe Tony wouldn't have sought this childish revenge. He had failed and now Tony had wandered off into the night.

He continued to drive around the area but still no sign, the night was beginning to disappear and give way to a new day. Abby had called to say she was on her way over to McGee's to help sort the place out having been told what had happened when Gibbs had called her to see if she had heard from Tony. Ziva called to say she had checked Tonys apartment again and a few of the clubs she knew he hung out at but to no avail.

Gibbs' phone rang a third time, caller unknown, he flipped it open and in his usual way answered, "Gibbs."

"It's Wanda, from the diner," stated the familiar voice from the other end of the line, and then, not expecting much by way of conversation from her usually mute customer, "I've got someone here at the diner who I think you need to come and talk to."

Begging her to not let him out of her sight, Gibbs spun the car around, stepped on the gas and headed to the diner.

As he pulled up outside he could see through the windows that his usual booth was occupied by a red eyed, tired senior field agent and his favourite waitress and maker of the best coffee and pancakes of all time.

Wanda stood as Gibbs approached, gently patting the shoulder of the young man who had been sat with her and nodding to Gibbs as he slid into the booth taking her space.

"You'll both be needing coffee," was all she said as she set about making herself scarce so that the two men could talk with a little bit of privacy, well at least before the Saturday morning customers started to turn up.

Gibbs reached out and lifted the chin of his SFA, "you think we can talk about this now?" he asked.

"Boss… Gibbs… I know I've gone too far this time, I didn't want to hurt him, just prank him, get him back for the comments and stuff and, well, I urgh, I know I've blown it. He'll never want to speak to me again, let alone work with me. How can you trust me anymore, look what I've done?" Tony poured his heart out and could feel the tears start to trickle again down his cheeks. "I'll leave, he shouldn't have to come to work and worry about me."

Seeing the genuine remorse in Tony's words Gibbs couldn't help but feel emotional himself. He loved both of his boys equally, if only they would stop this sibling rivalry all of the time. He knew deep down that his disappearing to Mexico and leaving the team the way he had did not help the situation. Tony had managed well and was more than capable but Gibbs had not anticipated the reaction he would get from the other team mates when he tried to keep things going in Gibbs style whilst trying at the same time to find his own. Then he had come back, just marched straight back in there and had taken over again. It must have undermined the young man, not that he had said anything, he was probably too busy with the undercover op. This could not have looked good for Tony in the eyes of the rest of the crew. It was still bubbling away under the surface now, even after all of this time. The cruel jibes and thoughtless comments every now and again.

Pausing for a moment to take a sip of the coffee that Wanda had slid onto the table for the pair he looked into Tony's eyes. He saw fear, distress and sorrow. Any thoughts he had about spanking him until he could sit no more started to evaporate. That was not going to be the way to fix this. It needed something more.

"Come on Tony, you need sleep, I need sleep and we need to let Ducky go home and get some sleep too." He ventured.

"You sure you still want me around?" Tony asked with real uncertainty in his voice.

"Do you think I would have spent all night combing the streets for you if I had just given up on you?" replied Gibbs.

"But I'm still in trouble though?" questioned Tony.

"Yep, but nothing that we can't fix," came the reply, "same as McGee's apartment."


	4. Chapter 4

The sun had been up for hours but unusually in the Gibbs household no one was up, there was no smell of freshly brewed strong black coffee, nothing at all. Exhausted from the events of the night before all of the houses current occupants were fast asleep.

Abby had called in a little help from Ziva and the two of them had been over to McGee's place to tidy up what they could and let the electrician in to have a go at fixing the place up. The whole place would need rewiring and new fuse boxes fitting. It was going to take some time and cost hundreds of dollars.

Abby was fuming, only made worse by the fact that one of the stuffed animals she swept up from the dining area had resembled Bert her farting hippo. For a moment she thought it was until Ziva had calmed her down and got her to check the internal cameras in her lab that showed her that amongst everything else Bert was still safely ensconced alongside Major MasSpec. The two had then driven over to the Gibbs residence to check on Tim.

Opening the door into the hallway both were rather taken aback by the lack of anything happening. Worrying that something more might have happened to Tim in the night, Abby rushed upstairs to see if he was still in bed.

As she bowled her way into the bedroom, she saw him lying there on his side curled up in a small ball, sheets and covers strewn everywhere as if in the night he had decided to have a fight with his bedclothes.

Assuming his bedraggled state was due to the fright that Tony had given him and not taking into account that his drinking might not have helped the situation either, she launched herself at him in order to comfort him. "Timmy," she cried as she dragged the sleeping McGee into her arms.

Startled by the sudden onslaught of Abby, momentarily confused by waking up at Gibbs' place and not in his own room, and with his feet tied up in the sheet at the bottom of the bed, Tim let out a surprised yelp.

Hearing this Gibbs awoke, grabbed his gun and rushed into the room, weapon brandished.

"For goodness sake Abby, what do you think you are doing?" he asked in frustration as he lowered his weapon and sat down onto the bed that would usually be occupied by Tony.

"Sorry Gibbs, I just had to check Tim was ok and he looked so vulnerable that I had to just hug him," she explained.

Slightly exasperated, Gibbs rubbed the sleep from his eyes and said, "why don't you wait downstairs and we will both be down in a minute when we're dressed?"

Agreeing to this request and giving Tim one last squeeze and a kiss on his forehead Abby departed the room. Gibbs looked over to where Tim still lay sprawled. "You feel up to coming downstairs and having a late breakfast?" he asked.

"Not sure I feel like eating Boss," replied Tim, "but I'll have a shower and come down."

Nodding his agreement with this Gibbs rose from the bed and went back to get dressed noting that he could already smell coffee on the go downstairs. Twenty minutes later and casually dressed he made his way into the kitchen to find Abby and Ziva raiding his cupboards to provide breakfast. Letting them get on with it Gibbs poured a large mug of coffee and sat down at the table. Tim joined him only a few minutes later and despite earlier protestations about not being hungry, when he smelt the breakfast burritos that the girls had cooked up, he started to tuck in with the rest of them.

The general noise and bustle had also woken Tony from a very fitful slumber in the spare room. Knowing that he had to get up and face the wrath of Gibbs at some point he fought his way into a sitting position at the edge of the bed and gathered his jeans and dark t-shirt from the floor where he had left them the night before. Not having stayed in his old room at Gibbs' he had no access to any of the stuff he normally kept there. Putting on the very outfit he had chosen to wear the night before in order to be stealthy only served to remind him of his guilt.

Hair still all over the place, bare footed and weary he eventually summoned up the courage to leave the room and go face the world and his fate waiting in the kitchen.

Abby was the first to notice his rather sheepish arrival in the room. She moved towards him raising her fists and shouting at him as she battered him on the arms and chest. "Why'd you do it Tony?" "You could have hurt Tim," "You're cruel and callous."

She would have carried on but Ziva had stepped in to stop the battery and Gibbs had brought the verbal battering to an end with a stern "Abigail" shouted at a level above her own yelling.

Tony shrunk back and out of the room, there were none of the usual DiNozzo quips and responses just muttered apologies and a retreat.

Tim simply stared daggers at him, Ziva remained quiet, Abby pouted from her position at Ziva's side and Gibbs rubbed a hand over his face. This was not how he had intended to sort things out. He didn't want the family, the team turning on each other; he didn't want to knock all of the confidence out of Tony. This was the worst possible start to the day. He kicked himself; he should have gone and woken Tony up and brought him into the kitchen with him, he should have warned Abby to control herself.

"Tony," he beckoned the young man back into the kitchen, "come and have something to eat, Ziva's cooked up a storm."

"Not hungry," Tony responded.

"Wasn't giving you an option Tony, you need food and I will make sure you get it," retorted Gibbs, "now sit down, grab a plate and start eating."

Tony moved to obey only to be knocked out of the way by Tim who jumped up from the table. "I'm not staying here if he is going to be," he proclaimed. Abby too nodded her agreement with the proclamation.

"Enough," yelled Gibbs. "Tony you are going to sit there and eat, Tim you are going to take a seat in the living room, Abby, you need to check your attitude and join Tim in there, Ziva can you help me clean up please."

All four obeyed his orders and requests. Ziva seeing Tony looking more pale, miserable and alone than ever before, tried to speak to him.

"Can I get you anything else to eat," she asked as she dried up the plates and mugs.

"No thanks Zi," responded Tony trying to raise a smile back to thank her for at least talking to him civilly even though he didn't think he deserved it.

"Tony," she tried again to comfort him, "Tim's just upset and Abby, well you know how she reacts when Tim is hurt, but she still loves you to bits and Tim well, you are the big brother he never had and he will forgive you, its just going to take time."

"I'm not sure Ziva, I messed his place up pretty badly," he stated and then added, "but perhaps not as badly as I scared him. Why am I so pathetic that I had to get revenge on him?" Tears formed, unshed at the corners of his eyes.

"I've been over to his place Tony, Abby and I , well we've got rid of the toys, we've tidied up what we can. He will need a new shower rail, a few holes will need mending in his walls and Abby is going to have to reconstruct his typewriter again, but they are all fixable and so is your relationship with him."

"She's right you know Tony," commented Gibbs as he came back in from having taken the trash bags out, "you finished eating yet?" he asked.

"I guess so," responded Tony.

"Well lets go in the living room and get this sorted then," ordered Gibbs, "Ziva are you going to join us?"

Nodding her agreement and popping the towel down at the side of the sink Ziva led the way into the room, joining McGee and Abby on the sofa, and leaving the armchair for Tony. Gibbs pulled an extra chair in from the kitchen and positioned himself between the two groups.

Tony gulped, he felt isolated in the chair by himself, an audience of three watching him and Gibbs positioned on a chair in the middle of the floor. A thought crossed his mind; was Gibbs going to punish him with an audience watching, was he going to embarrass and humiliate him just as he had done to Tim the night before. All of a sudden that breakfast he had been forced to eat wasn't feeling like a good idea. He could feel his stomach in his throat, he could feel a cold sweat sweeping over his neck and down his back, and he felt dizzy and weak.

The next thing Tony knew was that he was opening his eyes to see Ziva mopping his brow with a cold flannel and Gibbs gently shifting his fringe out of his face and calling his name out.

"Sorry Boss," he muttered, "I… I just.."

"Fainted?" offered Ziva.

"DiNozzo's don't pass out," came the automated response from his youth.

"Sure, they just go pale, close their eyes and drop to the floor for no reason," chuckled Ziva. "Tony its ok."

Sitting himself back up again, brought him face to face with Gibbs, "Boss," he asked, "are you going to punish me with everyone in the room?"

"Slightly bewildered by the question, Gibbs shook his head, "no Tony what gave you that idea?"

"I just thought that …. Well that you would want to humiliate me like I did to Tim last night," he muttered. "I know I deserve it but…"

He was cut off at that point. "Tony, that's not going to happen, when have I ever done that to any of you?"

Then addressing all occupants of the room, "look we all need to sit down and sort this out, do you agree."

Tony and Ziva nodded their consent, a prolonged glance from Gibbs to Abby also brought about an "I guess so," but Tim stayed mute.

"Tim," urged Gibbs, "this means you too."

"What if I don't want to?" came the reply, "what if I'm just sick of being the butt of all of his practical jokes?"

"Well maybe we should explore why they are happening in the first place Tim," suggested Gibbs.

Huffing and shrugging his shoulders McGee did not feel up to challenging Gibbs any further at this point. Instead he acquiesced to the suggestion and then sat deliberately ignoring Tony who was sat opposite him.

This was not going to be easy and Gibbs just prayed that he had enough coffee in the house to get him through this one.


	5. Chapter 5

No one in that living room really knew how to start this, it seemed like they had sat there for hours in glum silence, no one moving, no one looking at each other, but in reality only a few short moments had passed.

Sighing and finally breaking the tension Gibbs started. "Tony, you want to tell Tim why you did this?"

Before Tony could even start to reply Tim cut back, his words sharp and filled with anger, "what you think there is some kind of justification for his breaking into my house and terrorizing me? I should have had him arrested."

"Hey, calm it down. I'm not saying he can justify it but we need to know why and how all of this started," reasoned Gibbs. "So what do you have to say Tony?"

Tim huffed and turned further away from Tony, refusing to look at the man who until now had been sat there, his heads in his hands just wishing he could turn the clock back. Tony looked for any support he could draw on. Abby simply glared at him, Ziva nodded gently but stayed passive and he could see Gibbs' eyes gently coaxing him to speak.

"Well first I want to say I'm sorry Probie," he began only to be interrupted by Tim again.

"Yeah like that is going to make it better and fix my place up," huffed Tim. "And cut the Probie crap, you know I hate it."

Tony tried to carry on despite his feeling of loss and emptiness. "Look this is all on me Boss, can't we just say that I reverted to type, the class clown, took it too far and get to the consequences part'" beseeched Tony.

"Not gonna happen that way," answered Gibbs, "not if we want to sort out this god forsaken mess."

Understanding that he would need to reveal something more of the true DiNozzo, Tony started again. "Guess I never really had a younger brother or a junior team agent to train and look after before you came along Tim, I wanted to protect you from all of the hazing and stuff I had had before but knew you also needed to be tough to survive this job. So I thought that if I teased you a little you would toughen up, and you did. Its just… well… I forgot to stop."

"Its not that I didn't remind you, that Gibbs didn't tell you though, is it?" snapped Tim.

"Well no, I guess not, but what I'm trying to say is that what started out as me trying to find my feet with helping to train you and toughen you up became more than that. It felt like I had the younger brother I'd always wanted. I thought it could be something we had, make you laugh, break the tension of the job all that…" continued Tony.

"Break the tension?" questioned Tim astounded by the explanation, "seems to me that you create most of it."

"It was not my intention," offered Tony by way of response, "and I'm not responsible for all of the crap that goes down in that office."

"What do you mean by that?" questioned Gibbs, thinking that they might now get to the root of the matter.

"Well sometimes, I just feel that it all gets on top of us, then we don't listen to one another, and the only way to get them to notice me and listen to what I'm saying is to be the class clown," offered Tony, "it works when I'm trying to keep you off of their backs too."

Gibbs had long suspected the diversionary tactics of his second in command in protecting the junior members of the team.

"So lets look at last week and what the first thing was that created the tension," suggested Gibbs.

"What you mean other than his creating a fake online profile to make me look like an idiot?" questioned Tim still angry.

"It was just meant to be a joke Tim," Tony tried to explain.

"Just like you always treat my love life, hey," replied Tim

"No, I don't mean to, sometimes I wish you'd lighten up a bit and not rely on computer based relationships, but it really was just a joke," continued Tony, "look it was late, I was bored, I'd just been watching Weird Science, I had an idea, I didn't think it through and then there it was and you were answering my IM's and I couldn't stop."

"Bored? So where was the endless string of floozies you are constantly telling us about?" attacked Tim.

Before Gibbs could jump in to stop this running off of the rails, Tony reacted, getting to his feet, he towered over the room, "Just you take that back Probie. Let me tell you. Whilst I might make reference to all manner of relationships, I'm actually quite a gentleman, sure I like meeting beautiful women, taking them out for meals and seeing where things lead, but unlike the gigolo that you have me down as, I'm not jumping into bed with them all. I like the company, I like the conversation, I like having someone to take to the cinema but that's usually where it all ends. I usually spend what little spare time we have reading, watching tv alone or studying."

"Studying," scoffed Tim, "that what you now call reading the latest edition of GM Magazine?" Abby laughed, urging Tim on, but Tony was now on a roll, he had enough of being seen as the idiot, the uneducated one.

"No Tim and you can shut up too Abby, I'm talking about my PhD," he replied.

That little bombshell came as a surprise to all but Gibbs who knew his SFA had been hiding his education away from the rest of the team for some time now.

"What's it in?" asked Ziva, genuinely intrigued by this new side to Tony.

"Criminology and Psychology with specific reference to criminal profiling and predicting criminal patterns and behaviour," he replied. "But that's getting away from the point. I'm not an idiot, I'm sick of being treated like one by everyone."

"Well why didn't you tell us about your education?" asked Abby.

"I shouldn't have to," he replied, "I'd have thought that being the second in command on the team would have at least given you all the impression I had some intelligence and I have a hell of a lot more experience than you."

Tim rolled his eyeballs, he'd heard Tony on this subject before. Tony spotted this.

"Don't roll your eyes at me McGee, it's all true, I recognize your strengths its about time you give me some credit for mine," he argued.

"I do and don't try to turn this all onto me," Tim fought back.

"I'm not doing, I'm just trying to tell you how I feel and why I do what I do," came Tony's reply.

"Look we all get you are the second in command, you tell us often enough, big deal, we get it," spat Tim.

"But that's the point, you don't get it, 'Tony explained, "or if you do you don't respect it. I get your little comments, the jibes, I'm not Gibbs."

"That was a long tome ago, when we were all missing Gibbs and you were being bossy," interjected Abby.

"No you're wrong, it still goes on, even now and I wasn't being bossy I was the boss and I was as worried about Gibbs as the rest of you but I didn't have time to come to terms with my loss, I tried to keep things as Gibbs would do it, you just bitched and moaned; I tried to do it my way, you still bitched and moaned, all of you, all the time. I was never good enough for you, you didn't respect me and yet I kept us together, we kept up the solve rate, I sat each night with you Abby when you were inconsolable, I did all of the SFA paperwork to help you out Tim, as well as running the team, studying and doing my undercover op, I was trying to be there for you too Ziva but it was hard getting through all of the barbed comments you threw my way." Tony let rip.

"Get over yourself Tony," commented Tim, "you were just caretaking the team until Gibbs came back."

"Enough, Tim," yelled Gibbs, "how dare you, I left the team in Tony's hands because he was the only one of you who could lead it. I had faith in him. Perhaps I didn't make it well enough known at the time and god knows my return undermined him completely, but I'm gonna put that right starting now."

"So what you are saying is that this is all my fault?" asked Tim astounded that the tide of the conversation was turning against him, "what the hell did I do to deserve him blowing up my apartment?"

"That's not what I'm saying at all," responded Gibbs getting mildly irritated at McGee's refusal to take on board any criticism, "but while we are on the subject why don't we have a look at your behaviour over the last few days?"

"I knew it, just knew it," screamed McGee getting to his feet and starting to make his way out of the room. As he made to pass Gibbs, the senior agent caught his youngest son by the wrist and held tight. "Tim, I just need you to sit back down and listen," he tried to reason with him.

"Or what," retorted McGee not ready to concede to the tightening grip on his wrist right away.

Gibbs pulled him in close to him and in a hushed tone whispered, "or else you and I go to the basement, discuss why you need to listen to this, and then I bring you back here, and sit you down on your sore backside and make you listen."

Reddening with both anger and embarrassment; and worried that the others would have heard the veiled threat, he thankfully took the sensible option and sat back down; but not without muttering to himself, if not to everyone else in the room, how unfair the whole thing was.

"So let me tell you what I think of the week," began Gibbs. "First Tony, the prank at the start with the online dating I can understand to an extent, but you knew it was getting out of hand and rather than confess it, you tried to wriggle your way out of it in the hope Tim would never find out. Next you Tim, don't think I don't know how smug you have been behaving of late, did you expect me not to know that you had refused Tony's perfectly proper order at the crime scene, do you think I did know about your comments about Jeanne. Tony had started with a prank, insensitive yes but not deliberately done to hurt you, but your comment; that was cruel, not a joke, no other way of describing it."

However angry he was Tim was not totally immune to Gibbs comments, "Boss I didn't really mean to hurt him," he tried to mitigate, "I just said it before I had really had the chance to think."

"Doesn't make it any less cruel though does it," replied Gibbs, not letting him mitigate his way out of it too far. "And it wasn't just the one comment, you kept on at him treating him like a child telling him he could play with the lights and sirens in the cop car, baiting him with that stupid bear that you had been messing around with instead of working. I should have dealt with it there and then but I didn't think it would get this out of hand, that's my fault McGee, I take responsibility for mishandling it. Now I expect the rest of you to take responsibility for your parts in this. This mess is not down to just one person. I know the ultimate end came about because of Tony and that his actions were childish, but he seems to be prepared to take the consequences of that. What I need to know is whether you are man enough to admit where you went wrong too?"

Somewhat taken aback by the rather out of character and lengthy discourse flowing from their Boss, all four other occupants of that living room had sat up straight and started to listen.

Ziva was first to break the silence that then followed, "well I guess I haven't helped either," she said, "I knew about Tony's prank with the online dating and didn't tell McGee until it had got really out of hand, and I know I have perhaps made a few comments that suggested Tony was not like you."

"Thank you Ziva," commented Gibbs, "what about you Abs?"

"Well I don't see how I have done anything to contribute to this, sure when you were in Mexico I might have commented on his not being like you," she conceded, "but he wasn't you and he was trying to act like you, and he needed telling."

"Abby, I'm not always going to be around, I selected Tony as my successor, he could have had the choice of any job; he chose to stay here with you guys, and it is not your job to tell him anything or put him in his place, who do you think you are?" Gibbs was getting frustrated again.

"Well I'm sure you would have said the same thing if you had seen him!" responded Abby not prepared to give in on the point.

"Not if he was in charge and doing his best to get the job done and looking after the team," answered Gibbs. "Do you think I got it right at the start when Mike left me in charge of his team?" he questioned. "We all make mistakes Abby, we're not perfect, I'm not perfect, but until you are in those shoes you have not earned the right to judge anyone."

Abby pouted and sulked but said no more on the point, internally she realized that she had been unfair on Tony but she did not see why Gibbs was going on about it now when this was about Tony blowing up McGees apartment.

"Tim, anything you want to add," enquired Gibbs, "I guess I've not helped matters but I don't think I deserve all of the crap I get from him."

"Ok," responded Gibbs, "We can work with that, and how about you Tony?"

"Boss, I'm prepared to take the consequences of my actions, I need to stop with the pranks all of the time, I know I have to convince people to take me more seriously," pausing he turned to Tim, "Tim, I know I have already said it but I am sorry; if you can't work with me I'll ask Vance for a transfer; If you still want to go to the police then I won't stop you; If you let me I'll make it all up to you, I'll pay for the damage to be fixed, I will do whatever it takes but I ask you to give me a chance, please."

Tim's anger had started to dissolve, he wasn't yet ready to forgive completely but he certainly didn't want his friend arrested for criminal trespass and criminal damage; nor did he want him transferred off of the team. "I guess we can work this out," he conceded.

Gibbs took a deep breath. Perhaps there was a way out of all of this, a way forward. It would be rough and there was bound to be teething problems along the way. Looking around at the four of them he announced, "Girls, I would like to go home and pack a bag for a few days and come back here, I have a project I would like you to help me and the boys with." Turning to the boys, "Tony I know you have a lot of clothes here already, Tim you packed enough last night, you two are staying too, Tony you can use your money that you were saving to go on the frat weekend with your buddies to pay for the re-wiring, you won't be going on that trip, we'll fix the walls ourselves, I need both of you in the basement, come on lets go."

Both boys made their way down to the basement whilst Gibbs saw the girls out and poured himself a coffee. When he finally made his way down there he saw two worried looking young men waiting for him.

Tony was the first to speak, "where do you want me Boss?" he asked, Gibbs looked slightly perplexed at the question. Tony spoke again, "I'd like to take McGees punishment as well as my own, I at least owe him that."

Final realizing what was going through the minds of both his SFA and Junior agent Gibbs shook his head, "Not what you think Dinozzo."

It was Tim and Tony's turn to look perplexed. They were normally sent to the basement when they were in for a really harsh spanking.

"You're here to help me start on our team project," explained Gibbs. "I figure that if you are all having to work together to produce something that none of you can do alone then you might start to recognize the value in each other. The girls will be helping too."

"Er, this woodworking project…" Tony hesitated before he continued, "you aren't going to have us make our own paddles again are you Boss?"

Gibbs chuckled, "No DiNozzo, there's a charity fund raiser for the children's ward at Bethesda, they've asked me to make some wooden toys for them and given your recent prowess with toy making and Tim's attachment to Christmas toys of days gone by I have decided to requisition you to my team. You pair will be spending your spare time, cutting, sanding, gluing, nailing painting until we have a couple of boxes worth of offerings. You will both be staying here until we have plenty and until such time as I am sure that the two of you can put aside all sibling rivalry, work together and appreciate one another's strengths."

"You mean we're grounded?" asked Tim.

"Look at is as giving something back to the community Tim." Gibbs recommended, "with accommodation on site."

Tony reached across to the pile of timber and plans laid out on the work bench, studying them for a minute he then looked up, "so Tim, do you want to cut or sand?"

Gibbs turned to go back up the stairs leaving them to work through this together. He just hoped this different approach would finally put things right and sort them out for the future.


End file.
